ST.LOUIS, Mo. - The S&T men's volleyball closed out a successful weekend with a 3-2 victory over Central State, winning a rematch between the teams Saturday afternoon at Maryville's Moloney Arena to complete a sweep of its two matches.
 
The Miners, who also won a five-set match on Friday over Alderson Broaddus, dropped the first set 26-24 before bouncing back to win the next two sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-20, respectively. Central State forced a fifth set with a 25-22 win in the fourth set, but the Miners took the lead early in final set to win 15-11 and move to 5-8 on the season.  
 
In the early stages in the first set, Central State scored three straight points to take a 10-7 lead before Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) ended the run with a kill to cut the deficit to two. Central State continued to build on its lead and eventually took a six-point lead at 17-11, but S&T responded with a 6-0 run where Meyer and Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) added kills and Meyer and Kraus recorded an assisted block to tie the set at 17-17.

S&T grabbed a 23-22 lead following two service aces by Meyer, but the Marauders regained the lead with back-to-back points before Sallade tied the set at 24 on a kill. The Marauders then took the set by scoring the next two points.
 
After trailing 4-2 in the early portion of the second set, Sallade started a 10-1 Miner run with a kill, which ended with his service ace that put S&T up 12-5. The Marauders responded with a 6-1 run, which Meyer stopped with a kill and Kraus added a service ace to increase the lead to 15-11. After the team exchanged points for next five points, the Miners closed out the set on a 8-3 run where Meyer finished the set on a kill. 
 
In the third set, the Miners got out to an early 8-4 advantage after a 3-0 run on back-to-back points by Carff and Sallade. Central State was able to cut the deficit to two at 11-9 with a 3-0 run and the set remained close until the Miners – up by a point -- used another 3-0 run on back-to-back kills by Kuruzovich and Meyer and an attack error by CSU's Cameron Lee increased the S&T lead to four at 20-16. Each team went point-for-point down the stretch until Carff delivered a kill to close out the set in the Miners' favor, one that they led from start to finish. 
 
The Marauders got the early lead in set four by scoring four of the first five points, then built its lead to 10-5 shortly after S&T trimmed that early lead to one. However, the Miners bounced back with four straight points where Meyer and Kraus cut the deficit to one after an assisted block to make it 10-9, then tied the set at 12 on a Sallade kill. The score was tied several times during the fourth set, the last time at 22 the Marauders scored the final three points to force a fifth set.
 
In the final set, S&T and Central State were tied at four when S&T scored three consecutive points, starting with a kill from Sallade and capped off on a Sword service ace to go up 7-4. After the teams went point-for-point until it was 10-8 in S&T's favor, the Miners scored back-to-back points and went up 12-8 on a block by Sword. The Miners increased the lead to 14-9 after a Meyer kill, then Central State scored two straight points before Sallade ended it with a kill as the Miners avenged a loss last month to the Marauders.
 
The Miners were led in kills by Meyer with 19 as Sallade added 17 while Carff contributed nine. Kuruzovich led S&T with 38 assists as Meyer led with four service aces. On the defensive side, Meyer led with 12 digs and Kraus recorded with a team-high five blocks, while Carff and Sword added three blocks each.  
 
The Marauders (4-9) were led in kills by Lee with 16, while Tyrone Sands and Alain Tamo-Noche added five blocks each. 
 
The Miners will pause action for over two weeks before opening a six-game homestand, starting with the Raiders of Milwaukee School of Engineering on Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. in Gibson Arena.
 
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